The Family of Swan
by Glorificus Maximus
Summary: Charlie Swan has a secret. There is more to him than meets the eye and the mystery has to do with his large and shadowy extended family. Bella Swan is unsure of where her life is going.What happens when a recently heartbroken Bella is persuaded to meet her long estranged cousins in England? (Towards the end of New Moon)
1. Prologue

Prologue

_"__Is everything ready?"_

_"__Yes, all set. Has Bella agreed to come?"_

_"__Yeah, finally. Perspective is a great teacher, like I always say."_

_"__Good, good. This is going to be perfect."_

_"__Is everyone else coming?"_

_"__Just the kids. All the kids, in fact."_

_"__They've all agreed to come?"_

_"__Yes. The Fates have brought the lives of each one of our kids at such a juncture that they feel the need for a change. They are ready for it, now. They are being pulled by each other – their blood is bringing them together."_

_"__I know I have asked this before but are you absolutely sure it is safe to let the kids be on their own? Don't you think there ought to be at least one of us around?"_

_"__I am quite sure, my dear. They would never learn to act freely without fear or favour if they knew we were close by. And that is the first thing they need to learn – to act."_

_"__Still, I am worried."_

_"__Don't be. There are six of them. And by the time this gets over, they would be ready to give their lives for each other."_

_"__Or ready to tear each other's lives apart."_

_"__Let's hope that doesn't happen, brother. Past mistakes cannot be repeated."_

_"__Our children are better than us."_

_"__And that's why I have high hopes of them."_

_By the time the conversation was over, Charlie Swan's face was a grim mask of worry. Things were going to be difficult from now on and they would all have to act cautiously. The time had come. Things were going to change. Forever._


	2. Chapter 1

**Edward**

_"__Put out the light, and then put out the light:_

I know not where is that Promethean heat

_That can thy light relume …"_

Darkness had descended on my world again. All meaning was gone. All purpose lost. Mistake after mistake after mistake. I had left her then and I have suffered for my folly. She has left me now. I am still suffering.

"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN, ALICE? WHY DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?" I let out the full blast of my anger at the nearest person and blamed her. That's what I always do – put the blame on the ones who care too much about me to let me suffer from guilt while I know deep in my heart that if there was anyone to truly blame, it would be me and only me.

"Calm down, Edward." Alice's tone was stern, if not slightly offended. "You don't own Bella. She can go wherever she pleases. And it's not like she has run away or something. She has just gone to spend her vacation with some cousins."

"So far away? With that psychotic Victoria woman still hunting her?" I cried out helplessly. My anguish would barely allow me to think straight.

"England isn't that far away!" Alice sounded exasperated now. "For goodness' sake Edward, you're a vampire! Space and time should be of no consequence to you. And how would Victoria know where she has gone? Even if she does, I can't imagine her bothering to follow her all the way across the ocean. I would know if she decided on something that big."

"Do you think I should go after her?" I mused. "I don't have to let her know I'm around. Darn, this is worrying me!"

"Out of the question! Absolutely not!" Alice looked appalled, and very rightly too. I realized I sounded like a creepy stalker.

"She did not even leave any contact details with me, hasn't even told me how long she will be gone!" Outside the snow was turning into sleet. We had talked to each other for the first time on a day just like this.

"Heck, she didn't even bother to tell me in person that she was going away."

Chief Swan's face was smug when he greeted me at the door this morning as he broke the news and handed me the note. It was short.

_Dear Edward,_

_I am going away for a bit. Thought I'd spend some time with my cousins. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I want to sort the mess in my head and get a grip on myself. Don't worry about me. Give my love to Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper. Take care. I love you._

_Yours,_

_Bella_

The note was in my pocket. I wasn't losing sight of it till I saw her again. I wished I could talk to her.

"I wish I could talk to her." I voiced my thoughts. "Has she left any contact details? Her cousin's phone number or something?"

"I don't know. Ask Charlie." Alice looked away. She was hiding something.

"Alice, you know something you are not telling me!" She was thinking about several different unrelated things at the same time – the recipe for Kung Pao chicken, the lifecycle of the pepper moth, the lyrics of Ricardo Arjona's songs, Milton's treatise on the Christian Doctrine and a host of other things that were impossible for a sane person's mind to deliberate on one after the other. She was definitely hiding something.

"Alice," I said warningly.

"Edward, don't!" Her tone was pleading but I was ruthless where Bella was concerned.

Soon her thoughts slipped up. What I heard wasn't very reassuring. Bella had promised to let Alice know as soon as she got her own number there but she wasn't sure if she wanted me to have it or not. She didn't want me to contact her yet and requested Alice to hide it the best she could. Smart girl. She knew Alice would never be able to hide it from me. It was Bella's way of letting me know that she wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to me yet; she wasn't ready to let me in yet. I sighed. I wish I knew a way to regain her trust.

"So she is going to get her own number there?"

"Yes. Looks like that's the plan." Alice said in a small voice.

"So she must have planned to spend a considerable amount of time there." I surmised.

"She has graduated. She has a lot of time in hand."

I looked away. There was an uncomfortable burning sensation in my eyes. I would have been crying if I could. But my tears had dried up with my death.

"I miss her already."

* * *

**Jacob**

The news dropped like a bombshell in my ears. I literally kicked aside the bike obstructing my way and felt a shiver run through me. I felt myself heating up. I knew what would happen next and I had to control myself to hear the last of it.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BELLA'S GONE?" I roared at Seth. He jumped back a few steps, looking obviously alarmed.

"Hey, relax dude!" He put his palms out in front of his chest, in a placating, half-defensive gesture. "Chief Swan said that she had gone to visit some cousins. And he looked mighty pleased about it so I figure he was fine with what she was doing. He said she left a note for you so I offered to deliver."

I snatched the note from his fingers the moment he took it out from his pocket.

_Dear Jacob,_

_I'm leaving town for a vacation of sorts. I'm going to spend some time with my cousins in England, so I guess it will be a while. I decided I needed a change of air to clear my head and sort my life out, try to figure out what I want. Please don't worry about me; I'm going to be fine. Take care of yourself; don't get into trouble with anyone, particularly Edward and his family and give my love to Billy, Seth, Emily, Sam and the rest of the pack._

_Yours,_

_Bella_

England? Why England of all places? How come there wasn't a single place in the entire continental US where she could meet her cousins? And how long was "_a while_" supposed to take? And what could she possibly mean by trying to figure out what she wanted – is she referring to what she told me the last time we met? Could it be possible that she might be having second thoughts about wanting to ... to turn herself into a vampire? A new hope started building inside me. Maybe I hadn't lost Bella after all, maybe I still had a chance to salvage whatever was left of our friendship, and maybe ... maybe Bella would change her mind about Edward too. Yeah, and I'll just keep kidding myself for the heck of it and maybe one fine morning I'll wake up and see that there were no such things as shape-shifting wolves, or bloodsucking vampires, that this was all a silly dream and all was right with the world. I almost giggled.

"Has she left a number or something where I can call her?" I asked Seth.

He looked uncomfortable. "Err, I don't know."

"What, Charlie doesn't have any contact detail?" I was surprised.

"I don't know, man, I didn't ask. Sorry." He looked like he was going to be sick. I almost yelled at him again, but checked myself. Poor kid, between me and his crazy bitch sister, I don't think he had an easy life. I wonder why he still hangs around me, though. I mean, he can't do anything about Leah, obviously. But he didn't have to be buds with me either. Weird kid.

"Idiot." I muttered under my breath. "You just have to make my life more difficult, don't you?"

Seth breathed a sigh of relief, realizing I wasn't as angry anymore and cracked a half-smile. Even without the wolf telepathic link, I could see from his expression that he wasn't sure who I was addressing. I wasn't sure either.

"_Anything. Anything else. You'd be better off dead. I'd rather you were_."

That was the last thing I had said to her. I wish I hadn't. It's true enough that her becoming a bloodsucker like the Cullens and her being dead would be the same thing to me. But that doesn't mean that I don't care either ways. What she doesn't understand is that she won't be the same person, the same Bella, my Bella, if she became one of them. She just doesn't get it. Still that was no excuse for how I behaved. I had no right to say what I said to her. How did I? What had come over me? Heaven knows the last thing I want is Bella dead – she's the only one I've ever loved and will ever love! I regretted it the moment I said it to her and I wanted to apologize. I called her repeatedly but to no avail. Charlie had taken my case, but since yesterday even he had seemed slightly off, as if his mind wasn't completely here. And what was strangest was that it wasn't like Bella to hold a grudge for long.

I sighed. She didn't even give me a chance to say sorry before she left.

I decided to go to Charlie and see if there was any way to contact her.


	3. Chapter 2

**Alice**

The Swan residence seemed so quiet without Bella. It was like the whole point of it being someone's home was missing. When Bella had been there, this place had been like a second home to me. As much as I loved Charlie, it wasn't the same without his daughter around. It was only early this morning that Bella had left, just before Edward returned from his hunting trip to Goat Rock with Emmett and Jasper, yet I was already wishing she would come back fast. Edward was back in his reticent, introverted mood. He had driven away to Seattle to gather information on Victoria's whereabouts. Carlisle was in the hospital. Emmett and Jasper where in the forest tracking the unfamiliar scent we found in Bella's room the other day. Esme had gone hunting with Rosalie. I decided to position myself in Bella's house should the intruder return and keep close watch over Charlie. I had promised Bella that I wouldn't let Charlie be harmed in any way. I would have done it even if she hadn't asked me.

Needless to say Charlie was surprised to see dinner ready at his table when he came home from the police station.

"Alice, you really didn't have to do any of this!"

"Of course, I did!" I put on my best I'm-five-years-old-and-I-eat-sand expression. "You can't even cook properly from what Bella told me. Besides, this is nothing!"

He chuckled. "Ah, Bella – she loves mothering over me. You ought to know, she's been so used to doing it with Rene, she would shudder visibly wondering how I got by all those years without her."

At this, both of us burst out laughing and we continued for a full five minutes. Once we stopped, I sighed.

"What is it Alice?" Charlie asked concernedly.

"I miss Bella. I wish I could go with her, but she said she needed to get away from here for a while."

"She sure did. Don't feel bad, Alice. It's for the best, trust me."

"Well, I guess I understand. Doesn't make it any easier, though."

"I know. And let Edward know that he must understand this very clearly, as well, that he can't go after her. Not this time. And I'm not saying this because I bear any ill-will towards him. Relations have been sort of strained between us lately, but I know that Bella cares deeply about him. And that is good enough for me. Look, I don't know what happened between the two of them, but all I want to say is that this is going to be for good for everyone concerned." He got a faraway look in his eyes, like he was remembering something. "You see, dear Alice, some journeys need to be made on our own and there are some things that we need to work out ourselves. And we all need to give Bella her chance to do it, don't we?"

"Yes, I suppose."

Something seemed different about Charlie all of a sudden. It was weird enough that he could predict Edward wanting to follow Bella to England. I didn't think Edward's disposition would be this obvious to a human. He was slipping up. But there was also something more to it – I had a feeling that he wasn't telling me all the facts. I tried seeing into Bella's future for more information but there seemed nothing. And that was odd, because there should have been something at least, even though she was already quite a long distance from here, even some minute decision like choosing between apple juice and coffee. I always found something if I was looking out for someone specifically but nothing today. This worried me. It wasn't like how it felt like when she was with the wolves. That was like a complete blackout. This was something so much stranger. It was like a heavy mist had descended over Bella's future; I could feel there was something hazy and faint beyond the mist, but I couldn't get there. Was it because of the distance? I needed to talk to Edward and Carlisle about this. Perhaps they would reassure me that I was merely panicking like Edward because Bella wasn't here.

The ringing of the doorbell and the pungent odour that hit my nose immediately brought me out of my reverie. Charlie's favourite mutt was here, I thought with distaste. He went to open the door. Jacob Black lumbered in.

"Well, if it isn't a Cullen?" He sneered. I glared wordlessly at him.

"Now, now, Jake, be nice to Alice." Charlie reprimanded lightly. "She is a good girl."

"Whatever, Chief. I came here to ask about Bella. How come she left so sudden?"

"I had been urging her to visit her cousins for quite some time now." Charlie said. "They had sent her the ticket months ago. She only agreed to go yesterday; she finally admitted that it will do her some good. And frankly, I agree. She has been cooped up in this isolated, little town for so long." Charlie knew nothing about Italy, not that it could be counted as a vacation, of course.

"But why England?" Jacob persisted. "She never told me she had cousins in England. Heck, I didn't even know she had cousins in the first place!"

"Neither did I, for that matter." I mused. Jacob Black gave me an odd look. I had not realized that I was thinking aloud. I would never have let slip something in agreement with _him_ right in front of him otherwise.

"Well, she is not particularly intimate with her cousins." Charlie said thoughtfully. "They live in different parts of the world, so they don't get to meet each other much. We decided now that they were old enough to travel on their own, it would be nice to allow them to bond."

"How long is she going to be there? Could I talk to her somehow?"

"Well, I'm sure you could Jacob, as soon as she gets herself a phone there."

"She's getting herself a phone there? Is she going to be in England for long? What about college?"

"She might want to go to college there itself. It all depends on how things go and whether she likes England or not."

Jacob Black's face looked crestfallen. I might have revelled in his disappointment had I not been so anxious myself about seeing Bella again. What the heck, I thought to myself, if Bella decided to go to college in England, so can Edward and I. I'm sure it won't take the rest of the family much convincing to relocate with us. I couldn't wait for the others to come home.


	4. Chapter 3

**Bella**

_A round stone table stood in the middle of a clearing in the dark forest, its top smoothed by years of weathering. A burning candle, an ornate old knife, a blank parchment and a long feather quill lay atop the table. I approached the table slowly, my eyes fixed on the candle. It seemed to cast strange shadows all over, even though there were so few and such small objects in sight. Truth be told, there seemed more shadows than actual material things about the table. I kept proceeding still, step by step towards the table that seemed to draw me irresistibly. All of a sudden a violent gust of wind blew through the clearing and the candle was snuffed out. An unknown dread threatened to suffocate me and I felt a scream building up inside me. The wind had stopped as suddenly as it had started. It was dark all around._

I realized dimly that someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes. The flight attendant was asking me to put on my seat belt. The plane was about to land.

I yawned and checked the time on my watch. Charlie had timed it according to GMT. It said 18:12 hours. I calculated in my mind and realized that Charlie would still be at work. I glanced outside the window for my first sight of London and caught my breath. There was just one word for it – overwhelming. That's what all that centuries old, perfectly laid out sprawling mass looked like from up above – overwhelming. This was where I was going to spend the next few weeks, this and some of the English countryside. Charlie said that his family, _our_ family had property in some district in the north-east of England, I wasn't paying attention when he was telling me the name - some 'shire'. Apparently Charlie's grandfather Reginald Swan and his brother Walter had come to blows with their country squire father for some reason and had migrated to the US with his son (my grandpa Bob) and daughter Ethel right before the Wall Street Crash, while his bother relocated to London with his children. I would have imagined that my great granddad must have been in for a nasty surprise mere months after settling in a new country but funnily enough, by the end of 1939, i.e., before the Second World War had started in Europe, he was running a moderately successful woodworks emporium in Washington, which my grandfather started helping out his old man with after he returned from having served in the war. And that was where he first met grandma Marie. They married soon after and my dad Charlie was born. Reginald passed away a while later. They sold the business and moved far west to the opposite side of the country to the quiet, small town of Forks. I would never understand why. Then my dad grew up, joined the police, married my mum Rene; then I was born, my mum left town with me, somewhere in the middle Charlie became Chief Swan and before I knew I was moving in with him so that Rene could travel around with Phil. And here I am now, travelling across an ocean to a whole different country to vacation with people I barely remember meeting. How did this happen to me?

Between coming to live in Forks with Charlie and catching the plane to London, however, a LOT has happened. More things have happened to me than I had to experience all throughout the rest of my life put together. Finding the love of my life. And discovering the little fact that he and his family were not, well, technically human. That's how this had happened to me.

I don't know which happened first – falling in love with Edward or finding out that he was a vampire. I don't think it matters. I loved him. I still do. Only, a lot has happened since the day I fell in love with him, since the day he left me to save me from himself to the day I had to go stop him from getting himself killed by the Volturi, the vampire royalty, because he thought that I had killed myself and couldn't bear to live without me. As romantic and passionate as that sounds, it scared me more than anything else, more than James, Laurent and Victoria trying to kill me or even the Volturi giving me an ultimatum. I was scared at the thought of Edward killing himself. Living without him was bad enough but living in a world where he did not exist? The less said the better.

And then Jacob confessed his love for me. My best friend, my personal sunshine, Jake was a shape-shifting wolf. And he knew I was in love with Edward and he knew just how much. So when Edward came back, he spilled my stupid extreme-sports phase to Charlie and got me grounded. I still couldn't be angry at him. He was my best friend. He reached me where no one else could. He brought me back to life when I had quite given up. I owed him. So even when I knew that I would never love anyone as much as I loved Edward, not even Jake, I knew I loved Jake enough to feel guilty over refusing him. To make things worse, vampires and wolves were mortal enemies and in Edward and Jacob's world, they could not co-exist peacefully. Which would hurt more – losing the love of my life all over again, or never having to see my best friend ever again? What kind of a sick question of choice was that?

Maybe that's why when Charlie tried suggesting not-so-subtly that I take a vacation far away with different people for the umpteenth time, I finally agreed. I don't know if I was only kidding myself. I was afraid that I might change my mind, feel too weak to be able to stay away from Edward, so I decided to leave the following morning itself. Edward had almost killed Jake that night right after Jake kissed me and I fractured my fist by trying to punch him. My hand was still in a cast. The incident mounted my stress. It put a lot of things in perspective too. So I decided it was time to run. No matter that I was travelling to a whole different country. No matter that I was going to live with a whole bunch of people I knew so little about.

I have three cousins, two of whom I vaguely remember from a wedding I attended with Charlie when I was five. Harvey was a shy, quiet kid with serious grey eyes and shortly cropped brown and gold hair, who has a year older than me. He helped me up on my feet when Eugene had pushed me in the mud and then wandered off without a word before I could even say thank you. It had puzzled my five-year old brain but I hadn't given it a second thought. The said Eugene (who was my age) was the one I remembered more clearly because of, needless to say, the well-timed push that had sent me face-down into the mud and destroyed my new pastel pink pinafore frock. He etched his stick thin frame, evilly twinkling blue eyes, and crazy, brown, unevenly chopped hair in my mind more strongly by repeating the deed more times than I could count all throughout the wedding. It was mainly because of him that I was relieved when the event ended and I had to go home.

Harvey is from New York. His mom Jodie was Ethel's daughter, and is Charlie's first cousin. She runs a beauty salon and spa and often sent me exotic fruity smelling shampoos that actually smelled and tasted good enough to eat. We don't really visit each other much, though. Last time I saw Harvey, his voice had just started breaking. That was also the day I first got my period. Needless to say, it was awkward as hell.

My other two cousins where from outside the continent of North America. They were, as Charlie liked to call them, from "the other side of the family." They were Walter Swan's side of the family, the ones who had moved to London while Reginald and his family moved to the US. Walter had two sons and a daughter. His eldest son George had died in the war, while his younger son Rupert was reported missing and assumed dead. His daughter Wilhelmina survived the air raids and married the young heir Sir John Etherege and had a daughter Catherine and a son Clarence. Catherine married a Frenchman and moved to Singapore while Clarence joined the British Embassy and moved all over the world. Apparently they had both come to Forks for Charlie and Rene's wedding along with Jodie. That was the last time the whole family had come together.

Eugene is Catherine's son and three years older than me, which made him 21. Despite having first-hand experience of Eugene's shenanigans, it still felt really weird that he was a topic no one ever broached. Charlie had given me the idea that he was _different_.

As little as I know about Harvey and Eugene, the one person I have never seen is Carol. She is Clarence's daughter and a year younger than me. I have never met her, nor do I even know what she looks like. I got the impression that relations between Clarence Etherege and Charlie were strenuous at least.

I sighed mentally wondering how I had remembered all those names and places but for some unfathomable reason, Charlie insisted that I know and keep in mind and had been telling me over and over all throughout my grounding period.

The plane had stopped on the runway and my fellow passengers where unbuckling their seat belts while a pleasant female voice with a strong British accent was announcing a welcome message. I took a deep breath and prepared to get off. I had to see this through, for both my sake and Charlie's sake.


End file.
